In this study，we classify university students into types based on three critical thinking skills， and we analyzed the effects that the critical thinking disposition and behavior influence the skills． In addition， we analyzed the factors which affect the disposition and behavior． As a result， we were able to classify the university students in three types． Students in the type with relatively high skills acquired the abilities by the accumulation of the experience from primary schoolchild time， in the type with relatively low skills the current behavior influenced the abilities， and in the type with high writing and communication abilities the current disposition influenced abilities． In the analysis of conditional probability distribution， the difference of the change of abilities influenced by the disposition or behavior between the types with high and low skills was indicated．

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Project-based learning (PBL) is a long-term undertaking; therefore, a team’s relationships and the prevailing atmosphere should be conducive to their collaborative learning. However, few studies have analyzed the type of support required to facilitate team collaboration in PBL. Through interviews, this study explored how team members plan their discussions and how collaborative learning occurs. Based on the results, it was found that teams with an initial shared purpose were better at designing collaborative discussions and constructing original team evaluation axes in order to accept more varied ideas. In addition, collaborative discussions through such a process promoted the sharing of issues, enabling teams to conduct PBL effectively; this shared process is similar to the construction of shared epistemic agency. This analysis indicates that learning itself is designed through team work in collaborative learning.

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The purpose of this study was to examine age-related changes of performances and strategies in size and amount comparison in children. Kindergarteners and pupils in lower grades of an elementary school were shown pairs of quadrangles or rectangular solids, and were asked to indicate which one was larger. Results showed that the percentage of correct answers in size comparison tasks varies across age groups in u-shaped manner, whereas those for amount comparison tasks increased in a linearly manner. Analyses of comparison cues children used showed that the kindergarteners and first graders were unable to integrate differences in multiple dimensions and utilized the differences as separated cues in size and amount comparison. However, second and third graders could integrate and utilized the differences in multiple dimensions as comparison cues. These results support the view suggested by Bausano & Jefferey (1975) that 3-year-olds should outperform 4 or 5-year-olds in size comparison because 3-year-olds tend to compare size utilizing the differences in the longest dimension as comparison cues.

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This study is focused on analyzing changes of students’ belief in cooperation at secondary school mathematics lessons.　We introduced a basic structure of cooperative learning and instructing the value of cooperation into secondary school mathematics lessons, these two experimental studies were conducted. In study 1, mathematics classes with cooperative learning basic structure and appropriate instructing the value of cooperation had been conducted throughout the first semester by the first author. The result shows that cooperative learning enhances students’ positive belief in cooperation through declining individual orientation factor. In study 2, two lecturers, who are our colleagues, had continuously conducted lessons for same grade students with the same cooperative learning methods. Throughout this study, students’ positive belief in cooperation had been improved with decreasing individual orientation scales and inequity scales. Based on the above, cooperative learning basic structure and appropriate instructing the value of cooperation enhances students’ belief in cooperation when introducing multilateral communication between students.

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In traditional research, the process of genesis of the joint action of conversation during lessons isn’t examined microscopically enough as the process of genesis of the relationship between communication and educational materials in the classroom space. Therefore, we take up joint attention during lessons. The aim of this study is to clarify the mechanism of the function of joint attention in a specific case during lessons. The conversation in a civics class of high school in a normal classroom where the desks are arranged in a U-shape was examined by focusing not only on speech contents but also on the several kinds of component act of joint attention. As a result, it was revealed that joint attention is relevant to forming group activities and promoting thinking about the educational materials through several critical moments such as the relationship between the whole of joint action and some local parts of that, identification of the physical things, the act of pointing, the hearing/ seeing relationship, and comparison or intercomparison of thinking. The illogical-looking conversation in a U-shaped class that contains hesitation of speech or complication of various contexts, with joint attention, was generated as joint action throughout the classroom space, and had a focus on the educational materials of civics.

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